Bouncebacks! Critical Care

This edition of Bouncebacks! Emergency Medicine books examines the bounceback visit, putting the reader in the footsteps of the clinician as the patient deteriorates. The story pauses at important decision points as possible management strategies are reviewed in a literature-based fashion, followed by a revelation of the path chosen by the actual provider. As the patient’s course progresses, we reach additional decision points and address further clinical questions. In addition to our chapter authors, many with expertise in critical care emergency medicine, we have an all-star lineup of expert-whisperers: first an EM/critical care section editor (below) and second, EMCRIT.org’s double-boarded critical care guru, Scott Weingart. Their comments are inserted in grey boxes and are intended to give tips and tricks borne of experience and to provide context to the literature, "as if" they are standing over our shoulder and advising during a resuscitation.

Additionally, there are three chapters where we address the medical-legal aspects of care. Enter Greg Henry MD, past president of The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and one of the most experienced physician medical-legal experts in the country. He opines on the approach that both the defense and plaintiff would likely pursue and, by extension, how we can make patients safer through our evaluation and documentation before there is an adverse outcome. Whereas, these chapters contain the actual documentation from the ED chart, a very few chapters have slight modifications to the final aspects of the return visit at decision point 3, to allow for exploration of different critical care scenarios. There is still plenty of commentary on the documentation, missed red-flags, and what could have been done to improve care at the initial visit. Our goal is to make each chapter challenging, dynamic, and realistic… to move us from “standard of care” to “excellence in care.”

About the Author

Mike is the Associate Program Director at the Adena Emergency Medicine Residency and Professor of Emergency Medicine, Adjunct at the Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University. He has lectured nationally and internationally on medical topics and patient safety issues and is the executive editor for HIPPO’s UC RAP, the risk management section editor for EM RAP, and has contributed to ERCast, Risk Management Monthly, and is a chapter author for CorePendium. He has published original research and editorials in multiple journals including Annals of Emergency Medicine, JAMA-IM, The Journal of the American Heart Association, and The Journal of Emergency Medicine. Michael has practiced medicine nationally and internationally including volunteer work in Papua New Guinea, Nepal, and the West Indies.

Dr. Klauer is the current CEO of the American Osteopathic Association. He served as Chief Medical Officer, Hospital Based Services, Chief Risk Officer, Executive Director of the Patient Safety Organization, and the Medical Director for the Medical Call Center for TeamHealth. He is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine and The University of Tennessee. Dr. Klauer served as the Medical Editor-in-Chief for ACEP Now, ACEP's monthly publication, and as former Editor-in-Chief for Emergency Physicians Monthly publication. He is the Co-Author of three risk management books: Bouncebacks: Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine Bouncebacks: Medical and Legal and Risk Management and the Emergency Department: Executive Leadership for Protecting Patients and Hospitals.

Scott is an ED Intensivist from New York. He did fellowships in Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, and ECMO. He is best known for talking to himself about Resuscitation and Critical Care on a podcast called EMCrit, which has been downloaded > 30 million times.

Gregory L. Henry is a former Clinical Professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at University of Michigan Medical Center. He was the President of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) from 1995–1996 and is also former President and CEO of Medical Practice Risk Assessment, Inc. and President of Savannah Assurance Limited, LTD. He is on the editorial boards of Emergency Medicine Practice, Emergency Department Management, and Foresight and the Emergency Department Legal Letter. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the “Over the top” lecturer award and the “Outstanding speaker of the Year” award from ACEP. He is the author of Neurologic Emergencies: A Symptom-Oriented Approach, 2nd ed. He is a medical legal expert and has been an expert in many hundreds of cases.